If you think Jerry’s Miculek’s the best shooter in the world, you’re not alone. But when RF cornered Jerry at the NSSF Fantasy Camp and asked the Eric Clapton of Guns to name the world’s best shooter, well, see for yourself. And/or make the jump for some intel on JM’s pick for the world’s best shooter. Meanwhile, who do you think is number one? . . . .

Walter Walsh (courtesy badassoftheweek.com)

wikipedia.org:

[Walter] Walsh got his start with firearms shooting clothespins off of his aunt’s laundry line. In 1935 he joined the FBI pistol team. Within three years of joining the FBI, he had been presented with two marksmanship trophies from director J. Edgar Hoover. In 1939, at Camp Ritchie, he set the world record in pistol shooting with 198 points out of a possible 200 and won the individual eastern regional pistol championships in 1939 and 1940[13] and placing second in 1941 after leading for most of the tournament. He placed 12th in the Men’s Free Pistol, 50 meters competition at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, England.

At the 1952 ISSF World Shooting Championships, he won a gold medal with the United States team in the 25 m Center-Fire Pistol event and a silver in the individual version of that event.[18] After winning many tournaments within the United States Marine Corps, he became commander of their marksmanship training, a position that he held for many years until he retired in the 1970s. In total, he was selected five times for the All-American Pistol Shooting Team.

But that doesn’t tell you what a bad a** Agent Walsh was. Click here for one of his crime fighting exploits. Click here for Walsh’s Washington Post obit. Quite a man.

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55 COMMENTS

  1. I don’t think calling JM the Eric Clapton of guns is right, he’s more like the Eric Johnson of guns.

    • First, +10 for your name . . Dune, and Gurney Halleck are among my favorites.

      Second, Got to agree with you on the Eric Johnson comment. Clapton is a master of his genre, but Johnson can do it all . . . just like JM.

        • Which movie? There was an appallingly bad one that came out in the 1980s and a more recent effort by the SciFi (now SyFy) channel, which I found much better.

          Though I know other people think the exact opposite.

        • I agree. the movie was fine, but only because I’d already read all the books and knew the people.

          But you take what you can get, and you sometimes have to take it with a grain of salt. But the story, and Paul, Gurney, Stilgar and Chani and all the rest will always be real to me. They were people of principle and strength.

        • National Lampoon did a parody novel called “Doon” which I found to be pants-wettingly funny.

  3. Jerry is the best. He’s slightly younger than I am and I’m falling apart. Maybe not quite as dominant as he once was but he excels in many disciplines. And he’s humble…the trick shot/fast draw types years ago didn’t do all the 3 gun/ultra fast on the run crap Jerry does(at 61).

    • “We want to keep the range clean, so we’ll just shoot the shells coming out of the gun.”

  6. In the modern era with handgun, it’s gotta be Jerry. Before him, Ed Mcgivern.
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Mcgivern.
    I have his book and video. The guy held the speed record until Jerry broke it.

    For rifle in the modern Tom Knapp. (RIP) I think Mr. Knapp would be tough to beat.

    Current shotgun, Patrick Flanigan or Scott Robertson.

  8. To be fair you should limit the ‘World’s Best Shooter’ title to humans. Otherwise Cyborg Jerry wins hands down.

  11. According to my sources. Mr. Walsh is no longer with us. So who is the world’s best shooter currently?

    • Yes. Or someone like Alvin York. They weren’t shooting at paper targets on a square range. Jim Cirillo comes to mind, also.

    • And why did Simo have such skills? Because he competed. Skills honed in competition combined with the right tactics can be deadly competition.

      That is why tactical teams compete against each other, and other teams. Some even shoot open competitions like USPSA and 3 gun.

    • As a LtCol on Okinawa Walsh and his Marines came under fire from a Japanese sniper. From a range of 90 yards Walsh took out the sniper with a single shot from his 1911a1……. The White Death has nothing on Walsh… Walsh out sniped a sniper with his hand gun.

  14. Kind of a hard thing to figure out because people are so specialized now.

    A top USPSA/IPSC shooter would get destroyed in pistol bullseye match, and vice versa. Shotgun sports are their own world, and even between the sports there isn’t always 100% transfer. The list goes on.

      • I know, but it wasn’t that long ago maybe 3-4 IIRC. But even he describes it as winning it by the skin of his teeth. Last year he was in the 300s.

        But you put a little time pressure on those guys (like at the Bianchi Cup), and then people like Robbie can hang with them. For example SFC Soko was fifth at the last Camp Perry match, but at Bianchi Robbie beat him.

        Bring those fully into USPSA and the margin would get even greater. That is not to say that bullseye guys can’t learn the game. But they would have to take time away from their bullseye training.

        • Speaking of taking time away from training…. I gotta hand it Jerry for lending his time and skill set to the Army, especially during time of war. It kind of makes sense now knowing that Walsh was his inspiration.

  15. Carlos Hathcock deceased. Jerry Miculek today, although I am sure that military guys would know someone that can do amazing things and the public knows nothing about him.

    • A lot of the most famous shooters in history are deceased now, to include Hathcock and Kyle and York. But they are still the stuff of legends.

    • Carlos was actually my first thought too.

      The problem with this question is that it is just too broad. There’s all kinds of shooting . . . bullseye target, USPSA, benchrest, etc. And there’s a lot of seriously amazing shooters that no one ever hears about because they aren’t on some range or competition circuit somewhere, they’re humping through the desert or jungle putting the bead on real bad guys who actually shoot back.

      But that’s not taking anything away from Jerry M., because I do think he is one of the true greats of shooting sports.

    • I respect Carlos Hathcock’s performance in Vietnam and his contributions to doctrine that is still used by long range shooters today. What I don’t understand though is how he would be viewed as the greatest shooter ever. Do you know of any other disceplines of shooting he participated in? No doubt he was great on the battlefield. There are just many different types of shooting out there. I have seen some amazing pistol marksman stumble with a rifle and vice versa. If you know of some other things Carlos did please tell us. I would personally like to know.

      • Well as I understand it he won the marine shooting competition, the inter-service comp and then he won the national title at Wimbledon in 1965 on the 1000 yard range against 2600 other shooters. He was also an innovator with a .50 Bmg used as a sniper round.
        His accomplishments on the battlefield like a sergeant York are what stand out to me. As someone said up above it’s different when they are shooting back.

  17. Sport is sport and life is life. The world’s best shooter, IMO, is the one who goes home after a gunfight.

    • Assuming the one he was gun fighting was the world’s 2nd best… 🙂

      In real world gun fighting, as in any competitive venture, being the “best”, means enjoying an at best 51/49 edge over about the next 100 following behind you. And 52/48 against the 10,000 following them. Which is why, even if you are the “best”, the only way to survive with any probability as a gunfighter, is to stay out of gunfights.

  19. Jerry is # ONE. He’s old(a bit younger than me) and still does the tough competitions. He might have slowed down but not by much. No one even close. I can’t possibly comment on folks I have never observed.

  22. I don’t begrudge anybody the opportunity to make a buck, but this sight has REALLY gotten commercialized lately.

  23. I simply do not get the American cultural obsession with naming a “best” at everything. Everything nowadays is a superlative of some sort…best, biggest, fastest, etc.

    Perhaps the part that bothers me is the wrong-thinking that somehow naming a “best” also signifies that all others are practically inferior. While the 2nd placer on the Wimbledon line might be said to not be “the best” in that sport at that time, he/she is still better than 99.99% of all other shooters on the planet.

    This is what gets me with “the best ammo” horsecrap, too, like not being someone’s idea of “the best” means it won’t work. It’s pure nonsense.

    The question itself is pure nonsense since one has to pull all kinds of gyrations and rationalizations to justify any given “the best” chosen.

    Better approach (in my opinion at least): look to other shooters as folks to learn from, and stop comparing everyone and everything like life is some sort of scored competition with only one “winner.”

    • Americans have always been this way. It’s built into our DNA. Americans love a winner, and do not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all the time. When they were kids, they admired the champion marble shooters, big league ball players and fastest runners.

      • Not really. That’s only a recent phenomenon and fueled by advertising for the most part.

        Throughout most of our history, most people didn’t care all that much about any of that because they were too busy just doing their thing … living their lives.

        Do you honestly believe that some farmer in the 1830’s cared about “the best” at some nonsense task that had nothing to do with him? Do you think he even really cared about being the “the best” farmer?

        No. He cared about being successful enough. He didn’t piss his life away comparing himself to, and measuring his self worth against, others. And he SURE didn’t piss his life away giving a crap about how two other people compared themselves to each other.

        • Yeah, I do. That’s why they survived. Because they always strove to be the best at what they did. Why do you think county fairs had competitions for the best cow, the best sheep, the best canned peaches, etc.? If you don’t strive to be the best, you consign yourself to simple survival. To mediocrity.

          Why else would it be that so many “civilizations” so much older than the U.S. are still living in the Dark Ages while we are the ones everyone wants to be like. My wife is from Europe, and she has pointed out how they all try to compensate for their envy of America by making fun of it and any of their people who leave to come to America.

          My father’s ancestors came to America from Ireland in the 1790s, my mother’s from Italy in the 1900s . . . and all of them embraced this country as the home they had searched for all their lives. This is the greatest country because we never settle for second best . . . and those of us who still hold that dream in our hearts never will.

    • Competing is the only way to know who is getting better, and who is getting worse. Without objective measurements, and others to compare to training is like a rudderless ship.

      Even outside of organized competition, there have always been informal competition. Who can get a bullseye the fastest, who can shoot the most bullseye.

      The plaque for second place is in the ladies room.

  25. If Jerry wants to bring up Mr. Walsh, try Ed McGivern. He likely trained Mr. Walsh.
    As far as living shooters? I’d put Jerry at the top for handguns.
    Shotgun? Either Patrick Flanigan or Scott Robertson.
    Rifle? Bruce Piatt comes to mind.

  26. Who is the worlds best shot? Who is the worlds best shot. There are over 7 billion people on earth. Who is the worlds most famous shot?

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